“Tegan!” Elli yells.
“Don’t go pulling the boyfriend card on me. You’re on my team and right now those two are our enemies.”
This is pretty much how the rest of the night goes. Friendly banter, Tegan and Anderson cracking jokes and Elli and I standing next to each other scheming on how to get our crazy friends together. When we order our food, Elli matches all of our orders and gets a burger. She looks up at me and my smile is so large that I don’t even realize what Anderson is asking me.
When we finally leave the restaurant, we’re all exhausted and decide to call it a night. Elli’s family is coming in tomorrow and I’m going with her to pick her mother and sister up from the airport. Her dad and brother flew separately with the team and got a bus for when they get in. We say our goodbyes and make plans on what time I should pick her up in the morning and then I wait ‘till they get into the apartment before heading home.
* * *
Geezus Elli’s sister can talk. I mean she hasn’t shut-up since she got off the plane. She is funny though. She cracks jokes like it’s nothing and has us all hysterical on the car ride to the hotel. Elli’s mom is exactly what I thought she would be. You can tell they get along, and it makes me realize how far down Elli pushed all of her problems for her mom not to notice.
As soon as she got off the plane she wrapped Elli in a hug and then, without even me introducing myself, wrapped me in a hug too. It was like she’s known me her entire life. As she’s holding me she whispers in my ear. “I have a lot to thank you for. I’ve never seen her this happy and I’m not wrong when I say it’s because of you.”
Well that just put a huge smile on my face. I look over at Elli who’s talking animatedly with her sister, and even she looks surprised at how Elli is acting. I look back at Elli’s mom and tell her the truth. “You have nothing to thank me for.”
So now we’re in the car, heading to the hotel they’re staying at with the team. Elli seems relaxed until we pull up into the hotel parking lot and she sees the team coming out of the bus. Her brother must have seen us pull up cause he’s running over to us instead of heading inside with the team. That brings a smile to Elli’s face as she throws the door of the car open, hops out and wraps her brother up in a hug. For a kid who’s only 14, he’s pretty muscular. He’s also taller than Elli, but with her only being 5’2, it’s not hard to do. They look a lot alike, more so than her and her sister. Brown curly hair, big brown eyes and the same crooked smile. Julie has more of a tall, skinny vibe, with long straight hair and blue eyes like their mom.
As they hug, she seems happy. She has a different kind of bond with him and you can tell. After a few seconds he let’s her go and looks over my way. Elli looks towards me too and waves me over. We do the bro-hug and then some of his team mates are making their way over to us, hugging Elli like she’s their sister and then she introduces them all to me. Once she mentions I play on the Wolves I’m swarmed with questions and looks of awe and approval. When I look at Elli, suddenly she looks a little tense. She still has a smile on her face, but it’s a nervous smile. As all the boys go inside to put away their gear, I go to ask Elli if she’s okay, but she is looking at a guy I presume is her father. He’s making his way towards us and goes in to hug her. It’s a little awkward, but that’s because he doesn’t exactly look like the hugging type. He’s a little taller than Elli, but you can definitely tell he was a military guy. He’s obviously in shape and gives off the Italian God-Father vibe.
“Hi dad.”
“What’s up kid?”
He stands back and looks her over, but not in an “I’m so proud of you manner”. More like he needs to make sure of something. She’s extremely uncomfortable and looks angry and sad at the same time. What’s that about? Then he looks at me and back towards Elli. “So who’s this, El?”
“Dad this is my boyfriend, Dylan. Remember I told you about him on the phone?”
“I don’t remember you telling me about a boyfriend. Especially when it’s Dylan Rath.” He goes to shake my hand and he continues, “I’ve seen you play. Chris tells me a lot of good things about you.” He continues for a good 5 minutes, talking about hockey, with Elli just standing there as he leaves her out of the conversation. Her mom then comes over and asks him to round up all the boys for a team dinner. Before he goes, he looks at Elli and says “I don’t know if this is such a good idea while you should be focusing on school.”
“Dad, leave it alone. I’m with Dylan, and my grades are perfect.”
“They better be.” And with that, he turns to go inside and I look towards Elli as she relaxes a little bit. I go to wrap her in my arms and she lays her head on me. I can feel her heartbeat slowing down and can suddenly see where her drive to succeed comes from. I pull her back so I can see her face.
“You okay?”
“I should be asking you that,” she says. “But that went better than expected. So yea, I guess.”
Just then Dom comes out and tells us they’ve got a practice slot on the ice tonight and if I could skate with them. I look to Elli for approval and she says “Only if you want”, so we agree to meet them at the rink and Elli tells her mom she’ll see her tomorrow for Thanksgiving dinner. Since I live with my parents, they agree to let me spend the holiday with Elli, as long as I bring her over as soon as possible. I know they’ll love her and I can’t wait for them to meet.
We grab a quick bite to eat and make our way to the rink. Before we get there, I call Anderson and a few guys who are still around campus, and they agree to meet us at the rink to skate with the team.
“Thanks for this Dylan.”
“For what?”
“Spending time with Dom and my crazy family.”
“Your family isnt crazy. Well, minus your sister. Your dad is a little intimidating, but skating with the boys will be fun. I’ve always wanted to coach a youth team. Maybe this will be good practice. Hey why don’t you come on the ice with us?”
“Did you get hit in the head with a puck?”
Laughing at her shocked reaction, I answer “No, but you can hold your own on the ice. I promise I won’t let any of them check you.“
“Yea no thanks. I doubt my dad would ever let me on the rink, and those boys need to concentrate. It’s not everyday they have the guys from the Wolves practicing with them.”
We head into the rink hand in hand and I leave Elli in the stands to go get my equipment on. Everyone is getting dressed in the locker room and I see a few of my guys putting their gear on and talking to some of the younger kids. Then Dom spots me and makes his way towards me.
“Yo, thanks Dylan! This is awesome. Some of the guys want to have a scrimmage at the end of practice. You down?”
“Of course. I want you on my team though. Elli told me about how you play, and I’m not taking any chances,
“You got it bro. Hurry up and get your gear on. Coach doesn’t like when we’re late.”
“Sir yes sir,” I add with a mock salute. I start throwing my gear on and hit the ice a few minutes before the rest of the guys. Elli’s dad is sitting on the bench looking over plays he wants to go over and when he hears me come up, he looks at me and stands. He takes off his glove and I do the same as we shake hands.
“Thanks for joining us tonight and bringing some of your guys. This should be good for the boys.”
“No problem, sir. Thought it would be a good experience for everyone. Plus, any chance I can to get my guys on the ice during this break is an opportunity I won’t give up.”
“Spoken like a true captain.”
I look over to where Elli is sitting in the stands, and Tegan is now next to her. They’re talking and she looks upset. She’s not crying, but her whole demeanor is like she’s trying to bottle up something again. Before I can get her attention, her dad starts talking.
“Are you really seeing my daughter Rath?”
I look back at Elli’s dad and wonder why that’s so hard to believe. “Yes sir.”
; “Why? I’m sure a fine man like you could have his pick of the litter.”
Woah. What the hell? Is he serious? Before I can reply, Dom and the rest of the guys hit the ice and Dom calls me out to start passing with him. I look back at their dad and suddenly the pieces are starting to fall into place. I answer him as calm as I can.
“She is my so called ‘pick of the litter’ sir. And I’m very lucky to have her.”
Before he can say anything else, I skate away and start messing around with some pucks to clear my head. Not even five minutes with the guy and I’m already stressed out. Elli has had to live with him her entire life. When I look back into the stands at where she’s sitting with Tegan, she gives me a smile and mouths ‘you ok?’. I give her a reassuring smile, nod yes, and for the rest of the practice, I can’t even look her dad in the eyes. After a solid hour of drills, it’s time for us to scrimmage and Elli’s dad goes into the locker room and gives us free reign on the ice. That’s when Dom calls out to his sister in the stands.
“Elli! Get your butt down here and play some music!”
That seems to make her happy and her and Tegan make their way down to the scoreboard and stereo system.
“Want me to keep score too?” she calls out.
“Hell yea! Guys lets divvi it up. Anderson and Rath are captains. Rath chooses first since this is all his doing.” Dom calls out.
After we divide the teams, Elli starts the music. When the first song plays, a guy saying ‘It’s time to win!’ comes through the speakers and Dom looks over to her and starts laughing. When I look at her in the box, she’s laughing right with him, and gives him a quick wink.
Dom skates over to me and explains. “She used to play this song when she worked our games at the rink. Everytime she played it my dad would freak out and tell her to change it to something more old school like ACDC. She never did though, and that’s cause she knows I love it. She even took me to see them in concert.”
I look over to her in the score box and smile. The respect and love I have for her is growing more and more each day. I don’t need to tell her how I feel yet. But soon. When you know, you just know, and I think Elli is getting used to the idea of me not leaving her side.
As Dom sets off to take the face off with Anderson, the size difference makes us all chuckle. A twenty two year old, six foot two college player versus a five foot six, fifteen year old Bantam.
“Go easy on him Anderson! He’s your replacement once coach decides to bench your ass!” I call out. That has everyone on the ice laughing and they take the face off with the puck already on the ice as they bang their sticks together and count. ‘One hockey, two hockey, three hockey’ and then out of nowhere, Dom takes Anderson completely by surprise and swipes the puck through his legs, leaving Anderson with a baffled expression.
We play for about twenty minutes and decide to end in a shoot out. I go first and decide to have fun with it by doing a spin-o-rama and taking the young goalie by surprise. My team hollers out with chants of ‘showoff!’ and then when Anderson goes, he tries to do a trick shot between his legs and the goalie easily blocks it. That has everyone cracking up on the ice. Poor Anderson can’t catch a break tonight. After a few rounds, Dom is up and sends it top shelf, winning the game and giving us bragging rights.
We head off the ice and instead of going straight for the locker room, I head over to Elli who’s now alone in the score box. She doesn’t realize I’m behind her since she’s clearing off the scoreboard and rearranging the speakers. I sneak up behind her and wrap my arms around her waist as she lets out a little shriek. She turns around in my arms as she smiles and says “Oh you smell so wonderful!”
I laugh and take my helmet off to kiss her and she laughs while the sweat that’s dripping down my forehead now coats her face.
“Looks like I’m going to smell just as nice! Really, we should bottle this scent up and sell it. We’d make millions.
I shake my head at her sarcasm and let out a chuckle. “Hey I saw Tegan here. Where’d she go?”
“She went home. She came to make sure I was ok. And you for that matter.”
“Why wouldn’t we be ok?”
“She knows my dad can be a little hard on me, and she wanted to make sure he didn’t kill you.”
“Well that was nice of her. But I can handle my own against dear old dad.” Before I say too much, I add “Hey your brother is really good. Better than I was at his age.”
“Thanks. He enjoys it and that’s really all that matters. I always made sure he didn’t do it just because my dad wanted him too.”
Kissing her again once more, I tell her I’m going to shower and change and I’ll meet her out in the lobby.
Fifteen minutes later I walk out of the locker room and into the lobby but I don’t see Elli anywhere. Then I hear her. I turn and see the back of her long brown hair right outside the doors to the rink, arguing with her dad. Suddenly Dom is behind me and says “Wait here. I’ll go.”
The hell I will. I follow Dom outside and once we’re out, Elli’s tears are the first thing I see. They stop arguing as soon as they see us and Dom tells his dad he needs help with his stuff and they head to the team bus. I grab Elli’s hand and walk her to my jeep. Once I throw my gear in, I wrap her in my arms, on the opposite side of the car where no one can see us. She’s the first to speak. “Dylan, what did he say to you on the ice?”
“It doesn’t matter. Are you ok?”
“Can you take me home? I really don’t want to be here right now.”
“Of course. Can I stay tonight?”
“Yea, I think I need you too.”
When we get to her place and open the door, Tegan comes out and her smile quickly turns to a frown as she asks Elli what’s wrong.
“It’s nothing. I’m just tired,” she replies.
Without another word she walks back to her room and I share a knowing look with Tegan. I follow Elli into her room and find she’s in her bathroom with the door closed. My heart rate speeds up as I call her name through the door.
“Elli?”
“I’m just getting changed. I’ll be out in a second.”
True to her word, she comes out of the bathroom and walks straight to me. Relief floods over me and I sit her on my lap and we let silence take over. When she wants to talk about it she will. I kiss her forehead and we crawl into bed as I hold her close. She’s passes out within minutes and I follow suit.
CHAPTER 20
Elli
I’m sitting on my balcony sketching as Dylan sleeps in my bed. The sun is just coming up and there’s a chill in the air along with a slight breeze so I’m wearing my yoga pants and Dylan’s hockey sweatshirt. I don’t care what anyone says, Florida gets cold in the winter, especially if the sun isn’t up. I try to lose myself in graphite, but all I can think about is what my dad said to me outside the rink yesterday. How I need to lose more weight if I want to keep a guy like Dylan around. Then he said I shouldn’t even be thinking about guys and should just be concentrating on school.
‘Schools your main priority! You’re not here to mess around!’
I don’t even know why I let him get to me. I know he’s wrong but at the same time he’s right. I just don’t know anymore. Last night while I was changing into my pajamas, I looked at my toothbrush for a little while thinking of it’s other uses besides cleaning my teeth. If Dylan wasn’t outside the door waiting for me, I would have ruined all the progress that I’ve made. Everything I’ve been working for would have went down the drain, literally.
Just then, the sliding glass door to the balcony opens and Tegan steps out. She has two cups of tea in her hand and I’m immediately grateful.
“Morning sunshine! Whatchya drawing?”
I take my Mauraders Map mug that says ‘I solemnly swear I’m up to no good’ on one side and ‘Mischief Managed’ on the other. I take a long sip as she grabs my sketchbook from where I have it set on my knees and her eyes go wide.
“Elli, this is
incredible. Have you showed him?”
“Not yet. I wanted to wait till it’s finished.”
“It looks finished to me!”
“I still have a few things I want to add and fix.”
She gives it back to me and we sit there watching the sun come up.
“What happened yesterday?”
I knew this was coming. “My dad. I just let him get to me and I know he said something to Dylan about how he shouldn’t be with me. Probably how I should be focusing on school and working out. I mean he might be right but..”
“The hell he is.”
I turn around and see Dylan leaning against the door with his arms crossed. He crosses the short distance from the door to my seat and pulls me up from where I’m sitting. He holds my hands and looks me straight in the eyes. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to his grey eyes.
“Listen to me Elli. Don’t let your dad get into your head. There is no ounce of truth in his words and I’ll be damned if he messes up any of the progress you’ve made. There is no one else I’d rather be with than you. Okay?”
“He’s right Elli. Don’t let him ruin everything. You’ve come so far.” Tegan says.
“You guys don’t understand. He’s my dad.”
“I don’t care if he’s the King of England. This is your life, and you have to do what you want.” Dylan says this as he continues to hold me. It’s then I realize what day it is. I pull back and acknowledge both of these people who I don’t deserve, but am extremely thankful for. “Happy Thanksgiving guys.” Laughing, we all sit down, me on Dylan’s lap and Tegan next to us as we watch the rest of the sun come up. Then Dylan notices my sketchbook and grabs it before I can object.
Thin Ice Page 10